Finding Meaning and Purpose in Mitch Albom’s, The Five...

â€Å"The Five People You Meet In Heaven† written by Mitch Albom tells about a man named Eddie and his experiences in life and in heaven. During his journey in heaven he meet five people. He learns how he has impacted the five lives while on earth. Eddie finds that his life did have true meaning and purpose. Prior to meeting the five people that he meets in heaven, he feels as if his life is worthless and has no meaning. Physically he is not in good shape, â€Å"His left knee, wounded in the war, was ruined by arthritis. He used a cane to get around†(2, paragraph 1). He feels stuck at a place with a job that he absolutely hates, â€Å"He cursed his father for dying and for trapping him in the very life he’d been trying to escape: a life that, as†¦show more content†¦Eddie sees the friend run off and his father chasing after him ready to kill. His father catches up to his friend with raging anger but His friend is drowning. Eddie’s father saves his friend but dies shortly afterward. â€Å"His body been weakened, the ocean had left him vulnerable, pneumonia took hold of him, and in time, he died†(138, paragraph 4). A side of Eddie’s father that Eddie has never seen is suddenly revealed. Eddie uses this unknown side of his father to help amend al l of his hateful feelings towards him. It takes Eddie his whole life and time in heaven to begin to find the meaning and purpose of his life. The last one of the five people Eddie meets in heaven is a little girl named Tala. She is a little girl that Eddie burned alive in a fire. This is not an intentional death. He sets the fire to burn the place he had been held captive, it’s also the a fellow soldier had died in while at war in the Philippines. As this fire was started he thinks he sees a shadow and trys to get it out of the burning barn. His captain and fellow soldiers shoot him in the leg and pull him away thinking he is hallucinating and going to kill himself for something he â€Å"thinks† he sees. Even in heaven, Tala’s skin still appears burned very badly. Eddie is very distraught about her death. â€Å"FORGIVE ME, OH, GOD†¦What have I done†¦WHAT